December 8, 2011

Dearest Family,

 

This is your long lost son emailing from Oklahoma. Remember me?? Haha jk :) Oh man, I don't even know where to start! Hopefully I can fill you in on everything that's in my mind right now. But, as always, I'm okay Mom. In fact, I'm absolutely excellent! I always need to address that question first.

 

So yeah, I got transferred. Holy moley. I packed up all of my stuff Wednesday night, and within 24 hours I had arrived in Owasso Oklahoma, met my new companion, and moved into the Stapley's home. What fun!! It was quite the whirlwind of events, but I couldn't be happier right now because of where I am. Owasso is right next to Tulsa (Elm Creek is the name of the ward haha) and it's got that city feel. There's a little bit of country side, but it's mostly suburbs and busy streets. I love it! There's an older part of town, but the part we live in is actually pretty nice. Compared to Springdale, Owasso seems super wealthy. And if you remember anything from my marching band years, Owasso High School was a huge marching band school. We pass by the school all the time, and the football stadium is just MASSIVE. It looks like a college stadium. But I hear that it's that big for the marching band, even though football is big around here. Cool stuff!

 

Like I mentioned, we live with some members here. I love them so much! It's only been a few days, but I already feel at home with the Stapleys. I'm pretty sure you and Sis. Stapley would be best friends, Mom. She is WAY into decorating and being cutesy and stuff like that. It reminds me of you so much! And Bro. Stapley and Dad would get along too. His dry humor is seriously the funniest thing I've ever witnessed. Oh man, what a good time :) We live upstairs in a nice big room with big beds and a big bathroom with 2 sinks. Boy am I getting spoiled. I'm already super sad to hear that we might be moving in with some different members before Christmas. Noooo!! Oh well, I can't complain.

 

All the members here are really cool. Church was awesome yesterday. There are about as many people on the ward roster as Springdale, but more of them are active, so the chapel was pretty full. I already love a few of the families already. We ate dinner with the Sadweeks last night, and all their kids were there with their kids. It felt like a family reunion. We ate Hawaiian Haystacks (chicken sundays) and I was seriously one happy camper. I'm sure you understand, family :) They were so nice to me and I felt like part of the family.

 

Now it's time to talk to you about Elder Jensen. Elder Jensen.... (pause) OOOOOOHHHHHHH YEEEEEAAAAAHHHHHH. What a man. What. A. MAN. He's seriously my favoritest already! When we first met at the transfer point in Tulsa, we clicked right away. Elder Jensen is from Ammon, Idaho (near Idaho Falls) and he went to school at BYU-Idaho. He loves sports (we talked forever about our favorite teams), he loves girls (don't worry, we're trying to not talk about that too much), and he loves music. Sounds like me right? We get along so well, and we have similar goals. His trainer was a lot like mine (trunkiness, laziness, etc.) and so we're both ready to tear it up. We've already done some tracting together and walked a bajillion miles in the rain on Saturday, so we've bonded big time. Sure, the tracting was unsuccessful, but it was a lot of fun and we met some funky people. The area has been tracted hard core in the past, so we're now brainstorming new ideas for finding. Got any cool ideas of attracting people to the gospel? We're thinking of setting up a hot chocolate stand. It's been quite chilly around here, ya know... But oh man, I love Elder Jensen so much already. He's super nice and he has an awesome family back home. I don't even feel like his senior companion, because we've agreed that we're both going to be equal and keep each other accountable. The area is in need of some awesomely obedient elders, and so we've set the bar high. The Lord will bless us and this area.

 

I'm already out of time! I only get an hour here at the Library in Owasso. I love you so much and I look forward to telling you more about the work and such when I meet more people. There's so much to do! Love you so much!

 

Love, Elder Atkin

 

P.S. my address is:

13128 E. 80th St. N.

Owasso, OK 74055

 

P.P.S. My favorite Christmas treat is cookies. Snickerdoodles. And frosted sugar cookies. Oh boy! And no, we don't get the New Era. I would love it though...